About What Ting

Hi. my name is Devanie Khoo Tat Ting. I am a Malaysian. a crustacean sympathizer, a procrastinator by night and come broad daylight I cook in a kitchen restaurant located in The Fullerton Water Boat House somewhere around Fullerton road, Singapore. I’ve always keep myself busy doing things that should be done way half step earlier than it should’ve already be. Hence, I find everything that could be pre-done or pre-fixed are rather erm intriguing. Like, a news that could be printed in the newspaper on the next day.


I know my teeth will fall out one day for over-consumption of sneaker bars. I’ve just lost my family’s pet dog. it’s a schnauzer. I sleep lengthwise if I have a company, but since I’m single, I sleep diagonally, with bolster placed somewhere down below. I have a weak left shoulder as a result of a freak futsal accident, happens to twisted many times. My mind starts to deactivate only after about 3am, if I keep myself awake with foods, I multiply. So it’s hard not to think about food during that period.


my name, Devanie \d(e)-va-nie\ as a girl's name is a variant of Devany (Irish), and the meaning of Devanie is "dark-haired". which I find very interestingly feminine. There’s no reason why I’m not using the name, I recalled my mates calls me ‘Deva’ back when I was a kid then. My chinese name when translated, 达Dá as in, pertaining of, 顶 pronounce dǐng literally means top. Pronounce whole as in Dá ding, means UP TOP. This I find horrifyingly bemusing. Everyone just calls me Ting, it’s simpler that way, like, fingers snap Ting I come.


I used to live in a village, I used to live in a suburban area, I used to live with a bunch of bangladeshi folks. I'm currently lives in a flat, with a family of three and a roommate, who happens to be my childhood friend ever since we’ve met back then when we were just boys. Err too obvious? I’m allergic to seafood and so I’ve never experience a lobster party. There’s certain things I wear will always once belonged to someone else, with the specific exception of socks and underwear. I’d like the idea of naming both my hand scratchy & scratcho as they keep scratching me whenever I feel itchy. Once they’ve start they’ll never shut up.


My first piece of art I can remember is actually on the process of being redone from scratch. It’s a random piece about a taxi driver and a motorcyclist waving with each other, not arguing on traffics but signaling with each other to give way, with a girl flying a kite in the background. It’s about the warmth. I find it fascinating that, 17-19 years ago, the whole concept and ideas comes from a boy who are approximately age between 7-9 and that boy happens to be me. Okay okay I heard an ominous voice that says ‘’STFU’’


I’ve started to cook since I took part in a culinary course somewhere back in 2008. That being said, I have no idea what triggers me to be, or to cook “professionally”, if this is what you calls it. pursuing a career in culinary, is not what I’ve expected as like that of a carousel, merry-go-round happy-happy riding thingy. Nothing of the sorts on what you’ve watch on a foods channel programs which often the likes of Jamie oliver or Robert Rainford or Michael Smith or Laura Caulder or other “celebrity” chef that happily cooks up a meal and intriguingly enough to make one tries out a couple of dish and stirred out a cooking session at home.


I remembered once I tried out a failed palette d’ail doux [pardon the name, it’s basically a garlic mousse-like batter that meant to freeze and pan-seared for it crustiness] or so, as it is demonstrated based on Charlie Trotter’s kitchen sessions show. It’s an epic fail, a disaster. I ended up whooping all my mums garlic and messed up the entire kitchen. I think what inspired me most to be involve in this culinary world is, the results of watching too much of these fancy cooking shows.

Not that I’m complaining, I have since been scaling up exponentially, not in a good way though, which makes me feel doubt sometimes but not most of the time. I think it’s common to feel that way in an early stage. My mum used to pester me to cook at home whenever I’m at home ever since I step into a cooking school on the very first day of my life. and I never practice to cook an omelet ever since I’ve shifted to work here in Singapore. Only instant noodle in a cup.


Right, now what? I can’t remember the purpose of writing about myself in this tiny note thing, maybe I was lost within myself, or maybe while in the midst of updating my personal resume, one thing hits me in my mind is I can’t recall what hobbies that particularly interests me. putting cooking aside, apart from kite-flying,day-gazing, internet-surfing, procrastinating, cycling-cycling, tv-watching blablahs.. I started scribbling in very small pads with very small pencils as a child In medium, content and size.

Fascinated in all thing art as it is as my mind grows, so do my sights on what is possible creatively. the kinds of art that have stood out to me have never really patterned. I guess my eyes and my heart gravitate towards unusual, dark, absurd, sincere and beautiful works. I obsess over line work and flow and a female form, body and the lips and an Asian looks, like that of a Korean.


I enjoyed staring at people too. Be it in the toilet, shopping malls, bus stands, taxi stands, amusement park, bank, restaurants, in the bus, hawker stalls, at the club, in the kitchen, at your doorstep, cd shops, post office, queuing for foods, in the mrt.. specially the latter, very interesting, it’s always nice to see those who sat on the reserved sits, chances are, you’re likely to see their sulky facial reactions whenever they gave up their sits to senior a folks or a handicapped person. But things like this doesn’t happen all the time so, that’s the art of observing people for you.

I have in and about like now what no wait.. I just did a quick proofread of this whole communication, and I am struck by how often I used the word, "I." To my count, it is repeated 46 times in this glorified personals ad. Chicken and rice! With soy! You'd think I was a fucking porn star with these levels of self-absorption. Fuck it.

I think that'll do for now. If anybody has anymore questions beyond shity art, kite-flying, female sketches, relevance, Korean girls, used clothes, tiny pencils on tiny pads of paper, fast-cooked-food, procrastination, disillusionment, love, death, addiction, man-united, lactose intolerance, the future, optimism, nihilism, idealism, plagiarism, environmentalism and eating.. please don't be bothered at all.

You can call me at your girlfriend's house, or your boyfriend’s house, I'll be there having a lobster party. If I’m ever allowed.

Lyrics In Texts : Right Now

Someone right now is leaving their apartment
Looking down at the street, wondering where there car went
Someone in the car sitting at a signal
In front of a restaurant, staring through the window
at someone right now with their finger in their teeth
Who could use a little floss right across the street
there's somebody on the curb who really needs a jacket
spent half the rent at a bar getting plastered
Now he gotta walk fourteen blocks
to work at a shop where he's about to get fired.

Someone right now is looking pretty tired
Staring at a laptop trying to get inspired
Somebody living right across the street
She wrote the best things she's written all week
but her best friends coughing up blood in the sink
Can't even think what happened, feeling so confused
And he knows it looks bad but there's nothing he can do
I wonder what it's like to be right there in his shoes


[Chorus]

But no I'm just taking it in
Out the window of a hotel bedroom again
Tomorrow I'll be gone I don't know when I'll be back
But in this world everything can change just like that,
Like that


Yo somebody right now is dropping his vote inside a box
And trying not to get shot in his throat
For the act of freedom right now somebody is stuck in Iraq
Hoping that he gets shipped back breathing
in a war that he's not really sure of the reasons
So we show our support when the press mislead them
Though we more then remain proud and salute the troops
get some I know you boys got some work to do

Meanwhile right now someones 25 to life
And is standing on the corner with their thumb up hitchhiking
Stretching off a lotto ticket hoping for a real winner
Sneaking through the border just to work and to eat a real dinner

Right now someone wishes they were you and I
instead of second guessing freedom thoughts of quiet suicide
But right now I'm staring at the window at a frame
with holes in his arm and holes in his jeans
he pulled out his cigarette sparked the light
And walked right around the corner just outta my sight


But yo I'm just taking it in
From the second story hotel window again,
The TV's on, and my bags are packed,
But in this world everything can change just like that,
Like that

[Repeat]

Ya right now somebody sitting in the darkness
Trying to figure out how to put some heat in their apartment
But they got a little mattress and a little carpet
And they appreciate it 'cause some people on a park bench
You see them when you rushing to get to the office
wife robbed blind when she coming from the market

Right now somebody coming out from the pocket
Trying to dump that rock they run around the block with at
The same time the cops is raising the clock with aim
To fill your legs and back with some hot shit
Right now somebody struggling to stop this man
Who's kick and punching and cussing at the doctors
Down the hall the child taking his first breath
The doctors ain't even passed him to the nurse yet yo
I wonder if he understands what it's worth yet
Like the time spent while we here on the earth yet
The answer to the question that we all seek
can be found depend on how free y'all think

Right now it's somebody who ain't eat all week
That would kill for the shit that you throw away in the street
I guess one man's trash is the next man's treasure
One mans pain is the next mans pleasure
one say infinity the next say forever
right now everybody got to get it together man

I'm just taking it in another strange hotel lobby again
Put my luggage on my back I don't know where I'm at
I'm in world where we all change just like that,
Like that, like that, just like that, like that, just like that

Just like that, Just like that



Words by Fort Minor

of the self-centered and the such

again, i feel dragged. not that i did not comprehend the whole sigificance of being as such. it's just pointless for not able to show.

do not talk the talk if you know i'ts time to act.

Barricade. yes my friends, barricade.

re-post [last posted on facebook, march 3rd 2011]




if i have like, a dumping area for [Dump_any_distracting_thoughts_here] as in, POOF! a dump literally.. i'll be more than a very happy person to take note on the others, be more attentive to others, rather than whining my, my own, whatever issues that i'm making a big fuss with..



be it how important the matters is or how shallow the problem is, like.. seeking the possibilities from the impossible and want it to be happen as soon as possible, has an interest in things you don't particularly being fond of , thinking how to make money without money, starts to imagining things you think you could do in reality, kept thinking about a girl you don't even know while in the midst of a busy operation, to mention a few.. these are all distracting thoughts.. a stupid barricade, especially the latter that i've mentioned, THAT one, is very dangerous and risky.


so what's the big fuss with all these? you don't run away with it. yes i know. you've planned, plotted and you want to foresee everything and anything goes accordingly to YOUR WAY. yes. according to MY WAY, i'll be a nasa trainee or probably the second malaysian to flies up to space if if if if everything i've planned will work out MY WAY. okay cut out the bollocks, see all these creates an unnecessary, distracting, shallowwmellow how to say this in english? thoughts that i'm too focus with i don't even give a damn on others, friends or relatives erm problem.. because i think way too much for myself. way too much.



i mean, what the f[censored] it's 5 am, i wouldn't write this if i wasn't serious. 3 and half hours left to work. go figure..

'I am an empty doorway, I am a vacant alley, I am nothing.
eyes will not see me, glances slip over me.'


....


'be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind
Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,
now slip, now slide, now move unseen,
Above, beneath, betwixt, between.'


fade ting! fade!

tuesday funnies.

sometimes, funny things does trigger your sense of nostalgia that hit you in a certain way that you are proudly being part of it. i'm talking about malaysian, being a malaysian.

i'm off early at work today, and so i've got myself comfortably post out something i find amusing that i thought it was too funny not put up here for those of who might missed it. below was a video ad by digi and the concept was literally signifying we malaysian might be different,but we are all still the same, as the title suggested. i think it was shot for the malaysia's independence day back month ago.











i thought, using sambal belacan as a plot for the whole ad was quite ingenuously funny.. cleverly inventive :D